Cara’s Team Pick:

Back in August, when the sun was still bright and Paul Ryan’s nomination was but a twinkly data point in Mitt Romney’s cyborg-eye, publishing house McSweeneys quietly launched “90 Days, 90 Reasons,” an online compendium of short essays by “a wide range of cultural figures,” each explaining exactly why he or she is voting to re-elect President Obama. Now the voting booths are opening, the pollsters are baying, the ninety days are up, and the website is full of pocket-sized reminders of why Obama is my larger Team Pick for the day. But he was too hard for me to sum up, so I’m leaving the job to these other ninety (ninety-three, actually) smart people.

If you’re still trying to sway an undecided friend or relative, or if you’re still on the fence yourself, there are Reasons that are itching to persuade. Maybe your acquaintances who don’t believe in big government will take a minute to hear Emily Barton explain the social contract, and maybe those who don’t believe in government at all will be reinspired by John Sayles’s opinion that Obama “actually believes in democracy, or at least its potential.” For those who are gravely disappointed with Obama’s failures in specific policy areas, Reza Aslan wants to commiserate with you about foreign policy, Jonathan Franzen about the environment, and Sherman Alexie about Native American issues. And for those who don’t think any of it matters, that legislation is but a straw in the wind, constantly bending back and forth with each new administration, Andrew Sean Greer has six words for you – “Supreme Court Supreme Court Supreme Court.”

McSweeney’s is a publishing house, so a large number of these ninety contributors skew literary. This is not a bad thing, as is made evident by Marilynne Robinson’s clear-eyed history of employer/employee relations, Elizabeth Gilbert’s enthusiastic endorsement of Obama’s cool, and Joshua Ferris’s moving biographical sketch of his sister, a teacher and mother of two in Florida. But there are also educators, CEOs, environmentalists, musicians, comedians, artists, and at least one Muppet. (A lot of the contributors skew pretty white and male as well – and could they really not even find one gay person to write about marriage equality, DADT, hate crimes legislation, or anything else? – but reading through them all gave me hope that four years from now there will be even more space for what rapper Dee-1 calls “the voiceless people.”)

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THAO NGUYEN, PATTON OSWALT, TEA OBREHT, MAJORA CARTER, & ISHMAEL REED

Here’s hoping that by tomorrow this rhetoric will be unnecessary. Until then, it’s a well-harmonized call to arms, a veritable chocolate box of diverse political arguments, and a pretty good way to spend ninety minutes. In between refreshing your election-day apps, of course.

Cara is a former contributing editor for Autostraddle and a current staff writer at Atlas Obscura. She lives in Somerville with her girlfriend, their roommate, and a cat who can flush the toilet, and is generally thinking about gender, sustainable biodiversity, and/or rock & roll music. You can follow her on twitter @cjgiaimo if you want.

I’m sick of the pro-Obama rhetoric. Yes Romney would be a terrible President but making Obama into a Messiah when he is responsible for the deaths of thousands of innocents is inherently wrong. I understand that American lives are more valuable than those of Yemeni, Pakistani, Somalian, Afghani and Iraqi people (at least according to white liberals) but can we stop pretending that Obama hasn’t reneged on his promises (closing Gitmo, the Iraq war) and increased drone strikes? As a Muslim queer I feel I have to choose between my divided loyalties in a way which isn’t asked of other women. I’m not saying vote Romney but I would like to see some criticism of Obama on left leaning sites.

Agreed i HATE both canadites for this race obama has no idea what the fuck hes doing and yet in all his chaos and confusion he poses the chance for equality and yet romney has a plan for an actual budget and would fix this whole health care thing oh well to late now maybe in the chaos and spiraling dept thats sure to follow this we might come out with equal rights

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